Chapter 4 - An Old Friend
“But . . . You’re dead!” Desmond stammered.
Kelvin laughed again.
“Just ‘cos I disappeared don’t mean I died Des”
“Why did you leave me?” Desmond said, his anger growing.
“WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME?” He shouted this time. Kelvin began to laugh again and Desmond flew for him. He took Kelvin by surprise and they went flying into the cages. Desmond was overcome with rage, he wanted to kill him. But before he could so much as land a punch there was the click of a cocked gun behind him. Desmond turned to see a bearded, very rugged looking man pointing a gun at his head - the man we know as Zeke. Desmond looked back at Kelvin, he wasn’t laughing anymore. There seemed to be a shade of guilt on his face. The hatred inside Desmond began to pass. He released his grip on Kelvin’s shirt. He asked again,
“Why?”
“Duty called” Kelvin replied.
Five minutes later and Desmond was sitting against one of the cages, unable to shake off the feeling of betrayal.
Duty called? What the hell does that mean?, he wondered. Kelvin had left the room a few minutes ago, leaving Desmond with the bearded man.
“So. . .You live in here?” Desmond asked.
“Nah”, Zeke replied. “Our place is better than this. A lot less depressing”, he grinned.
“What’s this place for then, brother?” Des inquired. Zeke looked around at all the cages and said,
“Station 2 - The Hunter, Zoological and Biological Studies.” Zeke looked at Desmond. “They messed about with animals and stuff”, he finished.
“And the polar bears?” Desmond nodded towards the cages.
Zeke laughed and said,
“DHARMA had some wild ideas.”
“So why aren’t they using this place anymore, brother?” Desmond asked.
“Science don’t matter here these days, not since Hanso took over”, Zeke looked at Desmond with a serious expression on his face.
“Hanso? I thought he was -” Desmond was cut off by Kelvin returning. He was carrying a large bag at his side.
“OK, we’re done here” Kelvin announced. “Sam, you and Des can give me a hand getting this bag up the shaft. Let’s move.” Kelvin looked at Des. “I’m assuming you’re coming with us?” Desmond nodded but said nothing.
“Good”, Kelvin smiled.
It was a task getting that bag up the shaft for any man. But for Desmond, who was completely drained it was quite an ordeal. Nearing the top he gave the bag a final push and Kelvin hauled it out of the shaft. Des climbed out and sat exhausted.
“No time for rest Des,” Kelvin said, “Too dangerous here.”
“You’re telling me, brother?” He panted in reply, recalling his experience earlier.
Desmond didn’t move. He couldn’t. Kelvin came towards him and held out a hand,
“I’m sorry, brother”, he apologised.
Desmond smiled slightly and grabbed Kelvin’s hand and was pulled to his feet. Kelvin then turned and shared the load of the bag with Sam.
“Lets go Des”, he said.
Desmond sighed and followed, wondering where the hell he was going now . . .
Chapter 5 - Home
“How much further?” It was the first words Desmond had spoken for the best part of an hour.
“Not far”, Sam replied smiling. At that moment Sam and Kelvin stopped.
“We’re here”, Sam declared.
“Where exactly is here, brother?” Desmond replied, drained.
Sam grinned. Kelvin cleared some vines next to Desmond, revealing another large door. Again it had a DHARMA logo on it. Desmond didn’t have time to look at it as Kelvin heaved the doors open. Inside there was a very small space. Sam ushered Des inside, still grinning at the look of confusion on his face.
Kelvin was last in and he shut the door. The space was lit up. There was a large red button on the wall. Sam pressed it and the floor began to move downwards. It’s an elevator! Desmond realised, feeling quite silly for not spotting it before. At the bottom there was a small corridor. It was lit, illuminating a door at the end. They proceeded down it and Kelvin opened it, allowing Sam inside.
“Honey, I’m home!” Sam cackled. Drawing the attention of those inside.
The room was huge, had computers and desks lining both sides and had stairs leading up to two walkways on both sides. There were multiple doors on the second level. Desmond was so taken aback by the room that he didn’t realise all the people in it were looking at him.
He finally noticed but didn’t know what to say. Kelvin spoke for him,
“This is Des, my old partner from The Swan”
One of the men, who like the others, was dressed in rags like Sam, piped up,
“A button pusher?” he laughed. “Old Kelvin ain’t been the same since he came outta that place.”
“Shut up Mullins”, Kelvin replied.
There were about seven of them in total.
“So . . . Are you people part of DHARMA?” Des asked, his first words.
Sam chuckled and said,
“We’re the good guys Des!”
Sam’s words caused laughter among the others.
“So what does that make DHARMA then, brother?” Desmond asked.
“There is no DHARMA anymore, just us. And of course, Hanso.” Mullins informed him.
“I thought Hanso was part of DHARMA?” Des was getting confused.
Kelvin, who had been emptying the contents of the bag onto a desk, joined in,
“They were, then they got carried away. You remember the Orientation film in the Swan don’t ya, Des?”
“Of course”
“Well you remember the bit about Hanso being a munitions magnate? But that he’d changed his ways?” Kelvin continued.
Des nodded.
“Well he started up a foundation, and he funded the original DHARMA projects. Then, awhile ago, Hanso himself disappeared without a trace. Now, his executives run the show, not just at his own company, but here as well. The focus here now ain’t about science, it’s about developing the next generation of war machines. We were the original DHARMA workers, most here were the security team, some of us were scientists. Now, Hanso have their own men in, their own agenda. We were classed as surplus to requirements. When we objected, we got thrown out here. Into this hell hole of an Island.”
“But what are Hanso gonna do with all these weapons?” Desmond asked.
“Well, most of them are still at a very early stage in their development, but most likely they’ll be supplying terrorists with this stuff. They can test anything they want here, ‘cos no one out there can see ‘em.” Kelvin said, grim faced.
“What’s ‘out there‘ ?”, Desmond asked.
“The rest of the world. As far as the rest of the world can see, this place don’t exist. Hanso can supply as much weapons as they want to terrorists, get stinking rich from it and never get caught ‘cos like I said, this place don’t exist.” Kelvin finished.
“How is it invisible?” Desmond replied.
“We’re not sure, something to do electromagnetism”, Kelvin looked as though he genuinely didn’t know the answer to that one.
“But won’t someone start to question Hanso and half his company disappearing?” Des asked, curious.
“Not likely, ‘cos back in the real world, The Hanso Foundation is fuelling all sorts of scientific projects. Back there, no one knows Hanso is missing, the guy was a recluse so it’s pretty much normal for nobody to see him much. No one would ever question The Hanso Foundation would they Des?”
Desmond didn’t reply, this was all quite a bit to take in for him. Kelvin turned back to the desk. Desmond stared at the ground then at all the people in the room. They were all sitting silently. Turning his attention back to Kelvin he asked,
“Then where do you lot fit into this then, brother?”
Kelvin grinned and revealed what he been sorting on the desk - guns. Holding a rifle in the air he said proudly,
“Us? We’re the resistance!”
The words sparked cheers around the bunker. Desmond couldn’t believe it. He had just joined a group of rebels. . .
Chapter 6 - Plan Of Action
I can’t remember the last time I slept so well, Desmond thought, awakening from his first night spent with these rebels. Getting out of the bed he’d been given in one of the upstairs rooms he made his way out to the walkway, seeing all of Kelvin’s men gathered down below. They seemed to be deep in conversation about something. One of the men, Johnson, noticed Des on the walkway and beckoned for him to join them. They all looked up at him.
“Mornin’ Des!” Sam shouted up, he never seemed to stop grinning.
Desmond made his way down to join the group. Kelvin was stood with a map in front of him, the rest were huddled round the desk.
“OK, like I was saying, Austen has left some pretty important info at the drop off. It says there will be a boat arriving at midnight tonight on the North shore of the Island, delivering a shipment of chemicals. Chemicals that are integral to Hanso‘s latest and most important project, Austen himself doesn‘t know much about it, just that it‘s big. Very big. Now, our mission here gentlemen is to sabotage, not to run in there all guns blazing, that’s how people get killed. That isn’t the way we’re gonna go about things, am I clear?” The group nodded. Desmond didn’t quite know what to make of this.
“We’ll move along the beach to the dock. We all know where that is don’t we?” Kelvin asked. The group nodded again.
“Because of all the animals and stuff that were kept in The Hunter they had a helluva lot of equipment there.” Kelvin moved to the table where he’d sorted the guns.
“We have . . .Pistols, rifles, tranquillisers and . . .” He held something small in the air,
“Flash and smoke grenades, perfect!” He smiled.
“Well what exactly do you wanna do, brother?” Desmond asked from the back of the group.
“We’re getting’ our hands on those chemicals.” Kelvin replied.
“Then what?”, Mullins piped up.
Desmond looked at him, he was a small man, but he was clever. In the day Des had spent with them he seemed to be a very smart, quick witted guy.
“We take ‘em, then we get rid of ‘em.”, replied Kelvin.
Mullins nodded.
“When do we leave?”, Sam grinned, as he always seemed to do.
“An hour, don’t waste it.” Kelvin smirked.
The group dispersed. Desmond walked over to Kelvin, who was loading more weapons and counting the grenades.
“So it’s Sgt. Kelvin nowadays, brother?” Desmond laughed.
Kelvin turned, there was a slight smile on his face.
“Well, someone’s gotta stop these b******s, Des”, he replied, more seriously this time.
“Just don’t go getting yourself killed”, Desmond said, sitting on one of the desks.
He looked around at the bunker. It still had the concrete roof and walls, but it had an overall more important look to the other stations he’d been in. There would have been no two man shifts here.
Kelvin hadn’t replied to Desmond’s last comment.
“Here’s me worrying about you, Kelvin. I’m more likely to get myself killed”, Desmond laughed again.
“Not much chance of that”, Kelvin looked at him.
“Why?”, Desmond asked.
“ ‘Cos you ain’t comin’, Des” Kelvin replied.
Somehow Desmond wasn’t surprised, he didn’t particularly want to go anyway.
“This place ain’t gonna look after itself”, Kelvin said, taking aim with one of the rifles.
“Suit yourself, brother”, Desmond said, walking away.
He couldn’t help but notice a change in Kelvin. It had been a long time since the day he woke up to the blaring of an alarm, the day his shouts to Kelvin echoed without a response. He got lucky that day, because there was only 20 seconds from the time Desmond woke up and the end of the world. The world came within one second of disaster, Desmond was sure of that. It was only later, still concerned at Kelvin’s disappearance that he noticed there was a shotgun missing from the armoury. His heart sank, he’d never thought Kelvin would ever take his own life. He always thought he would die in this place before Kelvin. All that had changed just two days ago. Now Kelvin seemed more like a hardened soldier than the man Desmond used to share a good few jokes with in the Swan, hard as that may seem.
Desmond walked up to one of the rooms upstairs, where the rest of the men were gathered in one of the bedrooms.
“Desmond!” Sam proclaimed. “Coming to join us on our little adventure?”, He asked.
“Don’t think so, I’m on night watchman duty by the looks of things”, Desmond replied.
“Ahh . . . Don’t worry Hamish, you’ll get your chance.” Sam chuckled.
“Not sure if I want one, brother”, Desmond sighed.
Sam smiled.
“You’ll want one eventually”, Sam told him.
Desmond didn’t reply, he’d just noticed how badly he smelled. He’d been wearing the same clothes since he left the hatch.
Sam knew what Desmond was thinking and he moved towards the door.
“Right this way, Des”, he grinned.
An hour had passed, Desmond sat on the desk with fresh clothes on, watching Kelvin’s little army prepare to leave. As much as he didn’t like the idea of going out to fight Hanso, he did feel a bit left out, a bit of an extra. He watched Kelvin, he could sense the weight of responsibility on the mans shoulders. This was difficult for him, knowing that he may be about to lead these men to their deaths. The mission would be dangerous. Hanso would be ruthless, their men would take no prisoners.
“All set?” Desmond asked Kelvin.
He nodded, and looked at Desmond.
“See you in another life yeah?” Kelvin broke a wry smile.
The two shook hands, possibly for the last time, Kelvin then turned to his men.
“Lets move”, he said. His men followed him through the corridor and into the elevator. There was barely space for all of them. The doors closed, Desmond was alone in the bunker. It was a feeling he was used to . . .
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